To mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we present the Peabody Award winning Sonic Memorial Project with a post script recorded on the 10th Anniversary by our narrator, Paul Auster.

The Sonic Memorial Project began in October 2001 as part of the Lost & Found Sound series. We opened a phone line on NPR for listeners to call in with their stories and audio artifacts relating to the September 11 attacks and the history of the World Trade Center.

Hundreds of people called with testimonies and remembrances, music and shards of sound, joining a national collaboration chronicling the life and history of the World Trade Center and its surrounding neighborhood.

Combining interviews, voicemail messages, audio contributions from listeners, oral histories, home videos and recorded sounds of all kinds, the Sonic Memorial Project team created a series of stories for broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered, and this hour long special narrated by author Paul Auster.

The Sonic Memorial Project was produced by The Kitchen Sisters and Jay Allison, in collaboration with NPR, independent radio producers, artists, writers, archivists, historians and public radio listeners throughout the country.

Tom Luddy was a quiet titan of cinema. He presided over the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley for some 10 years, co-founded and directed the Telluride Film Festival for nearly 50 years, produced some 14 movies, match-made dozens of international love affairs, and foraged for the most beautiful, political, important, risky films and made sure there was a place for them to be seen in the world. And he made sure that the people making this powerful work were known and knew each other.

Tom Luddy with his photographic memory, his infinite rolodex, his encyclopedic knowledge of global cinema and his catalytic ability to connect people, caused the most unusual of collaborations to come to be.

Tom championed the French New Wave, the Czech New Wave, Brazilian cinema novo, dissident Soviet cinema, directors Francis Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Les Blank, Paul Schrader, Agnieszka Holland, Barry Jenkins, Laurie Anderson and countless others.

Tom passed away on February 13, 2023. There’s a giant hole in the screen without him here. But his DNA is in the hundreds of filmmakers, musicians, writers and activists he nurtured and inspired. As film enthusiasts gather this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, The Kitchen Sisters Present... The Tom Luddy Connection: The Man, The Movies, The Rolodex.

Produced by Evan Jacoby and The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Mixed by Jim McKee.

The Hip Hop Archive at Harvard, the Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky, the Lenny Bruce Archive, the Internet Archive and more surprising stories of preservation and civic life.

With host, Academy Award-winning actress, Frances McDormand.

The Kitchen Sisters Present Archiving the Underground, hour one of our two-part Keepers special. Stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians. Guardians of history, large and small. Protectors of the free flow of information and ideas. Keepers of the culture and the culture and collections they keep.

Interviews featured include: Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, founder of the Hip Hop Archive. 9th Wonder (aka Patrick Douthit), acclaimed hip-hop producer, DJ, and Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellow who discusses setting the standards for the hip-hop canon. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the renowned Harvard professor and literary critic. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Kitty Bruce, daughter of comedian Lenny Bruce, who details the creation and preservation of the Lenny Bruce Archive. And many more.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee.